Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Oops. I Almost Did It Again.

Anyhow. I almost got caught up in the trap of comparing myself and our journey to the journey of other families. In particular, the journeys of other home schooling families.

Recently, as I was contemplating the school year and curriculum, I was persuaded by several other well-intentioned adults that my child needed a particular class. I quickly realized that the cost was prohibitive for our family. Just couldn't do it. Not only could I not afford the class, but it involved a time commitment that I could not in good conscience allow.

The problem was not that others persuaded me that my child needed this class. He could benefit greatly from a class that developed these particular skills. The problem was the guilt I felt over not being able to put my child in THAT class. The class that everyone else is taking or has taken in the past. My, oh my, what we put ourselves through when we compare our lives with the lives of others . . . We are not meant to live our lives the way others live their lives. We are meant to live our lives so that God is glorified. And that just might look different for each family. No one will have the same journey or be called to live out the same details as another family.

The best part of all is that:

I don't have to explain my reasoning to anyone else.

I don't have to justify my decision to anyone else.

And good gracious, I certainly don't have to feel guilty over it!

The bottom line is that I had to take a step back and remind myself why I home school. It's not to adhere to a secular worldview of what kids "need to know"
these days. One reason I home school is to avoid the
secularization of my children. I want my children to live each aspect
of their lives through a Biblical world view. No compartmentalization.
No compromise.

But the biggest reason I home school is to teach my children to love the Lord our God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind. To love others the way Jesus loves us. And to be spiritually strong, emotionally healthy, responsible adults who find their security, not in this world, but in Christ alone.

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Verse of the Day

Hey there!

I recognize that all my blessings come from my Heavenly Father. I want to be sure to give Him joyful praise for who He is.
On this journey with me:
The Cruise Director (16),
The Affectionate One (14) and Whirling Dervish (13). That's right, all teenagers. Chocolate, prayers and lots of cherry coke appreciated.

Remember:

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them, and these will continue till they have been resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress. --Frederick Douglass

Men, whether great or small, are still but men, and men are dust. To trust in the many is folly, to rely upon the eminent few is madness; to depend upon the Lord alone is the only sanity.